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WaywardWoodwose posted:Yeah, I've noticed in the last few months that whenever Prachett comes up Goons come jumping out of the woodwork to tell us all his last couple of books weren't very good. In this case, though, the discussion was already about fantasy series getting worse as they go on.
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Apr 28, 2022 13:14
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Tenebrais posted:In this case, though, the discussion was already about fantasy series getting worse as they go on. Yeah but there is a bit of a difference, I feel, between getting worse content wise and just not being written as well. There wasn't suddenly a bunch of brain worms invading the discworld, though that would make for a neat plot.
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Apr 28, 2022 13:39
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Tenebrais posted:In this case, though, the discussion was already about fantasy series getting worse as they go on. It was about series getting weirder and grosser and more poorly edited, Discworld hardly counts. Jedit posted:It's not a question of finding another explanation for the decline in his last few books, although there is one. It's that every single time it comes up a bunch of loving phrenologists race to tell everyone how they could tell Pterry was in cognitive decline from Book X. It's offensive. Wait, do people actually do this for books prior to the Alzheimer's announcement?
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Apr 28, 2022 13:49
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*reading Color of Magic* smh the signs were all there, clear as day
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Apr 28, 2022 13:56
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I guess it'll die down as time goes on. At the moment books like Raising Steam are probably the last Pratchett books most fans read. Once people get round to re-reading and people who weren't buying the books as they came out stop being the majority of the fanbase, the Alzheimers discourse will reduce.
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Apr 28, 2022 14:38
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I'm on book 4 of the stormlight series (so about 35,000 pages in), and I'm honestly shocked at how non-horny it is for being a fantasy series.
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Apr 28, 2022 14:50
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Gort posted:I guess it'll die down as time goes on. At the moment books like Raising Steam are probably the last Pratchett books most fans read. Once people get round to re-reading and people who weren't buying the books as they came out stop being the majority of the fanbase, the Alzheimers discourse will reduce. So you’re saying people will….forget about it?
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Apr 28, 2022 14:54
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the holy poopacy posted:
I wouldn't be surprised if someone has, though mostly it's the books from 2008-9 onwards.
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Apr 28, 2022 15:01
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Brazilianpeanutwar posted:So you’re saying people will….forget about it? Not exactly, it'll just become less relevant to talk about since he was only suffering from Alzheimer's for like two out of forty books It's just that right now those two are the most recent ones most fans have read, and that'll change over time since they're not his best ones
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Apr 28, 2022 15:01
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If we can talk about the best one? It's Night Watch.
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Apr 28, 2022 15:38
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Night Watch was the first one I read because I thought it was Guards! Guards! I was in the bookstore as a teenager and had been meaning to start reading Pratchett and had some vague memory of hearing the Vimes series was a good place to start and that the first book had a very descriptive name about the watch. Was surprised when I started reading and was obviously several books in. Great book though, probably would've been more effective if I read the books in the correct order. Was still the best of the series even coming in with no knowledge other than: It's fantasy, there's jokes, and there is some sort of police force. FreudianSlippers has a new favorite as of 16:07 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 16:05
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I had the exact same experience with Night Watch.
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Apr 28, 2022 16:12
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I really like the Moist von Lipwig duology
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Apr 28, 2022 16:18
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I read Night Watch first, but mostly because my local library only had a handful of random Pratchetts and I couldn't wait for the transfer period to dive in
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Apr 28, 2022 16:20
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Well, chronologically Night Watch is the first Watch book outside of the bookends...
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Apr 28, 2022 17:08
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Pratchett is a great example of media that did age well. He set a standard that makes a lot of other books become appropriate to this thread. The movies and TV shows based on his stuff though? Just lol wtf
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Apr 28, 2022 17:22
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Desert Bus posted:It's been a long time since I have gone back to Pratchett, mostly because i'm worried about tainting his legacy in my own head, but so far as I know/remember, there is some problematic stuff in his earlier books because he was British and didn't know any better. He went on to just knock it out of the park in terms of acceptance and inclusiveness. I honestly don't think he ever allowed whatever fetishes he had to seep into his books at any point? I'm pretty sure the man liked big boobs, though iirc he kept it to character descriptions and didn't really indulge in "breasted boobily downstairs"-type writing.
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Apr 28, 2022 18:07
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AFewBricksShy posted:I'm on book 4 of the stormlight series (so about 35,000 pages in), and I'm honestly shocked at how non-horny it is for being a fantasy series. Sanderbot is too busy writing more novels to be horny.
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Apr 28, 2022 18:14
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Brawnfire posted:I read Night Watch first, but mostly because my local library only had a handful of random Pratchetts and I couldn't wait for the transfer period to dive in I don't remember why I started reading Pratchett, but the first two books I picked up were Lords and Ladies and Soul Music. Both built off significant previous continuity, but I don't recall feeling lost with either one. This was in the 90's, so It took me a couple years to hunt down Mort, a University inter-library loan to get Guards, Guards! and a lucky strike in a used book store for Equal Rites.
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Apr 28, 2022 18:30
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Desert Bus posted:Pratchett is a great example of media that did age well. He set a standard that makes a lot of other books become appropriate to this thread. The movies and TV shows based on his stuff though? Just lol wtf We were robbed of a Christopher Lee Reaper Man adaptation and I will never forgive the world for this sin Phy posted:I'm pretty sure the man liked big boobs, though iirc he kept it to character descriptions and didn't really indulge in "breasted boobily downstairs"-type writing. whomst among us
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Apr 28, 2022 18:30
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maltesh posted:I don't remember why I started reading Pratchett, but the first two books I picked up were Lords and Ladies and Soul Music. Both built off significant previous continuity, but I don't recall feeling lost with either one. Yeah the dude was incredibly good at writing a narrative that was satisfying self-contained but also moved forward a larger settting. And the thing I liked about Night Watch was that it was a time-travel story, so I got the sense that this setting had changed, in what ways, and how major characters in this story and other books I hadn't read were part of that change. It made me want to, you know, *read those books too*
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Apr 28, 2022 18:36
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I feel like Monstrous Regiment is better than it gets credit for. It's not my favourite (probably Fifth Elephant or again Night Watch) but it'd be in my top five. Edit: Night Watch > Reaper Man > Fifth Elephant > Monstrous Regiment A Sometimes Food has a new favorite as of 19:43 on Apr 28, 2022 |
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Apr 28, 2022 19:38
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Desert Bus posted:Pratchett is a great example of media that did age well. He set a standard that makes a lot of other books become appropriate to this thread. The movies and TV shows based on his stuff though? Just lol wtf I remember Hogfather being a good adaptation, but couldn't get through the other ones. Dunno why, I just kind of bounced off of them.
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Apr 28, 2022 19:38
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A Sometimes Food posted:I feel like Monstrous Regiment is better than it gets credit for. It's not my favourite (probably Fifth Elephant or again Night Watch) but it'd be in my top five. I've been meaning to reread that one for a while. I only read it the once as a teen and didn't really pick up on the trans
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Apr 28, 2022 19:43
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A Sometimes Food posted:I feel like Monstrous Regiment is better than it gets credit for. It's not my favourite (probably Fifth Elephant or again Night Watch) but it'd be in my top five. It gave me bad basic training flashbacks so I abandoned it a couple of chapters in.
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Apr 28, 2022 19:51
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The animated Soul Music is very good if you can get past the low-budget animation. Christopher Lee is wonderful in it.
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Apr 28, 2022 19:51
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HopperUK posted:The animated Soul Music is very good if you can get past the low-budget animation. Christopher Lee is wonderful in it. It's definitely been dummied down a little bit for kids, but only the tiniest bit. Also, there's one great Pratchett gag that I'd swear wasn't in the book (when Imp gets the band run out of Quirm by telling the mayor "We're bigger than cheeses.")
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Apr 28, 2022 21:06
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All this Feet of Clay and The Truth erasure is hurting my soul.Dav posted:I think the Rivers of London series is a reversal of that trend—but even early on it wasn’t close to Dresden Files level uncomfortable. You mean Aaronovitch's deep and abiding love for African women?
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Apr 28, 2022 21:28
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God The Truth. I loved that book so much. I wish we had more journalists like Willem De Worde. Despite what an arse he is.
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Apr 28, 2022 23:28
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I'll go to bat for Witches Abroad (the entire Witches series tbh), it was the first one I read and it made me go track down everything he ever wrote. Granny Weatherwax's vocabulary is seared into my brain now, and I remember tracking down the fan lyrics people had made up for Nanny's songs. Pratchett will always genuinely be my favorite writer and I'm glad he gave us as much as he did. night watch was still the best
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Apr 28, 2022 23:43
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Josef bugman posted:God The Truth. I loved that book so much. I wish we had more journalists like Willem De Worde. Despite what an arse he is. Sometimes I think about how it isn't having your potato but your faith in the potato that counts
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Apr 29, 2022 00:14
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the holy poopacy posted:It's definitely been dummied down a little bit for kids, but only the tiniest bit. Thats 100% in the book, it made me laugh, out loud
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Apr 29, 2022 00:53
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Desert Bus posted:The movies and TV shows based on his stuff though? Just lol wtf And I could go on and on about the dwarfs. Just the fact alone that there are two distinct types of dwarf and one is just ordinary-sized humans who live underground. But they have this weird thing where they all have to wear false beards to protect them from a monster that abducts anyone who doesn't have a beard - but which turns out not to be a monster and it really seems like they should have been able to figure that out a long time ago since it doesn't actually abduct anyone, they go willingly and are free to leave at any time. And it gives you magic powers? There's so much and none of it makes any sense. And it ended with a sequel hook! Like they thought this unmitigated disaster was getting a second season!  HopperUK posted:The animated Soul Music is very good if you can get past the low-budget animation. Christopher Lee is wonderful in it.
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Apr 29, 2022 03:35
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I liked Witches Abroad for the reveal about why Weatherwax is so reluctant to help people, and prefers to make them help themselves via headology when she can. She's actually the evil twin in her sibling group. The problem was that her sister the fairy godmother went crazy, ran off and started forcing stories to happen to make herself stronger regardless of the feelings of those she manipulated. As Esme puts it when she confronts her in the ending, "After you left, I HAD TO BE THE GOOD ONE!" At least I think that was in Witches Abroad, been a long time since I've read the series.
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Apr 29, 2022 05:27
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Absurd Alhazred posted:It gave me bad basic training flashbacks so I abandoned it a couple of chapters in. That's a fair reason, if a new one on me.
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Apr 29, 2022 07:05
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the holy poopacy posted:It's definitely been dummied down a little bit for kids, but only the tiniest bit. No, that joke is in the book. If you're ever unsure, go looking in the Annotated Pratchett File - there is no reference that the alt.fan.pratchett posters would not find, no matter how hard he tried. There's a famous (among us) story from the first DWCon quiz where the winners got the right to be soundly beaten by the most obscure questions that the man himself could devise. They answered some real toughies quite easily, so he asked why it was that you only ever found one sock from a pair in the drawer - a joke from Hogfather, which at the time he was still writing. The winners answered (correctly) that it was the Eater of Socks that was responsible. An exasperated Pterry shouted "How can you know that? That book hasn't been published yet!" Everyone in the room chorused, "WE KNOW EVERYTHING!"
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Apr 29, 2022 09:19
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That’s l-space for you
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Apr 29, 2022 09:55
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My first Discworld book was Thief of Time. Despite it possibly being one of the absolute worst places to start overall I still really love it and I'm glad that it got me into the rest of the series. My second was Thud! which I similarly enjoyed.
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Apr 29, 2022 11:29
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I started with Moving Pictures after spotting it in a supermarket. Pretty decent.
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Apr 29, 2022 11:44
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BioEnchanted posted:I liked Witches Abroad for the reveal about why Weatherwax is so reluctant to help people, and prefers to make them help themselves via headology when she can. She's actually the evil twin in her sibling group. The problem was that her sister the fairy godmother went crazy, ran off and started forcing stories to happen to make herself stronger regardless of the feelings of those she manipulated. As Esme puts it when she confronts her in the ending, "After you left, I HAD TO BE THE GOOD ONE!" I always thought that it was meant to imply that Granny Weatherwax was always the "Good" sister of the two, just that she wasn't NICE about it. Considering how much the book stressed "Nice does not mean Good", it seemed a logical extension of that (Granny is good but mean, her sister was evil but nice, and they had both mistaken good and nice).
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Apr 29, 2022 12:02
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